The Irish Times

We may snigger but, says architect Siobhán Ní Éanaigh, Termonfeckin is the greatest village name in Ireland. It's an Anglicisation of the softer seeming Tearmann Feichín. The Gaelic sports clubs take the name St Fechins but, did I hear her right, laughing as she tells me that the football team are called the Feckers? All around these parts new housing is taking traditional villages and towns to greater circumferences, and long strips of development along coasts are bringing separate seaside conurbations together. The last time I was in Drogheda you could see the river as you drove into town but that's changed. Termonfeckin, too, has its dormer-laden new homes sitting on high points but the village has retained a traditional feel largely aided by the softening effects of its mature trees and undulating ground. Nature has a great way of taking the edge off man-made structures especially if those constructions are built in a symbiotic relationship with land and weather.